About this episode
An adventurous Renaissance artist’s action-packed autobiography provided compelling inspiration for Hector Berlioz’s first completed opera, Benvenuto Cellini . Berlioz strongly identified with the notorious Cellini, seeing in him a mirror of his own bravado, skill, and passion… and uses this identification to add to the story. The result is a relentlessly entertaining opera that is by turns comic, poignant, farcical, political, and romantic. Hosted by Pat and Kathleen Van De Wille